Expanding the Practice of Newsmaking Criminology to Enlist Criminologists, Criminal Justicians, and Social Workers in Shaping Discussions of School Violence: A Review of School Shootings from 1992-2013

Abstract

Newsmaking criminology argues that criminologists should interpret, influence, and even shape the direction of newsworthy information about crime and justice to the extent that they aggressively make their presence known by engaging the media. This article calls for an expansion in the practice of newsmaking criminology to also include criminal justicians, as well as social workers when it comes to the issue of school violence. Recently, a number of shootings have occurred on school campuses in rural, urban, and suburban America. When these shootings are reported, they quickly become politicized and generate widespread attention from parents, law enforcement, politicians, community activists, and policy-makers. However, what appears to be missing from the discussion is input from criminologists, criminal justicians, and social workers who could bring a wealth of knowledge and understanding to these atrocities. This study used a random sample of 129 items from over a twenty-one year period in a content analysis to categorize the spokespersons used by the mass media to discuss school violence and school shootings.

Crowdsourcing Criminology: Social Media and Citizen Policing in Missing Person Cases

“…While debates continue in academia on both the benefits and limitations of newsmaking criminology (cf. Iliadis et al, 2019;Murray, 2017;Reinsmith-Jones et al, 2015;Turner, 2013), we suggest that there is value in examining the process of crowdsourcing in criminology and its relationship to both infotainment and newsmaking criminology. Indeed, "networked technologies have enhanced opportunities not only for people to consume cases but to participate in collective investigations and create their own representations" (Yardley et al, 2018, p. 5).…”

‘Why have we funded this research?’: On politics, research and newsmaking criminology

“…This type of ‘journalistic’ approach (Groombridge, 2007: 472) remains contested within the academy on several counts, ranging from normative arguments apropos the proper role of criminology, to personal preference (Groombridge, 2007; Turner, 2013; Wilson, 2013). Like Barak, proponents of newsmaking criminology point out that crime and justice issues are already in the media and, as Groombridge (2007: 473; see also Reinsmith-Jones et al, 2015; Wilson, 2013) puts it, ‘if criminologists don’t do criminology in public […] the media will do it for them’. In a similar vein, Chancer and McLaughlin (2007: 157) state: ‘criminologists have had to confront the embarrassing fact that in a society saturated with “crime talk”, they have utmost difficulty in communicating with politicians, policy makers, professionals and the public’ (cited in Rock, 2014: 413).…”